A multilayer capacitor, a multilayer electronic component, is mounted on the boards of various types of electronic products such as an image display device, for example, a liquid crystal display (LCD), a plasma display panel (PDP), or the like, a computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a cellular phone, or the like, to serve to charge or discharge electricity therein or therefrom.
The multilayer capacitor may be used as components of various electronic apparatuses since it is relatively small, implements a high capacitance, and is easily mounted.
The multilayer capacitor may have a structure in which internal electrodes having different polarities are alternately stacked between a plurality of dielectric layers.
Since the dielectric layer has piezoelectric and electrostrictive properties, a piezoelectric phenomenon may occur between the internal electrodes when a direct current (DC) or alternating current (AC) voltage is applied to the multilayer capacitor, such that vibrations may be generated.
These vibrations are transferred to a circuit board on which the multilayer capacitor is mounted through external electrodes of the multilayer capacitor, such that the entirety of the circuit board becomes a sound reflecting surface to generate a vibration sound, which is experienced as noise.
In this case, the vibration sound may correspond to an audio frequency range of 20 to 20,000 Hz making listeners uncomfortable, and the vibration sound making the persons uncomfortable as described above is known as acoustic noise.
Recently, due to a decrease in noise of components of electronic devices, the acoustic noise generated in the multilayer capacitor may be more prominent. Therefore, research into technology capable of effectively decreasing the acoustic noise generated in the multilayer capacitor has been required.